PROJECTSUMMARY Cognitivemodelsofdepressionsuggestthatthedevelopmentandmaintenanceofthisdisorderstemfrom individuals?characteristicwaysofattendingto,interpreting,andrememberingenvironmentalstimuli,suchas selectiveattentiontowardnegativeaspectsofexperience.Infaceperception,thesebiasesareexpressedasa tendency tointerpretambiguousfacesasexpressingnegativeemotionandageneralimpairmentinprocessing ofemotionalfaces.Theabilitytoprocessotherimportantfacedimensions(e.g.,identity)independentlyfrom emotionmightalsobeimpairedindepression,butresearchinthisareahasbeenverylimited.Obtaininga betterunderstandingofalltheseimpairmentsiscritical,astheabilitytocorrectlyextractinformationfromfaces isimportantforadequatesocialinteraction.Socialimpairmentsobservedindepressioncouldbeproducedor intensifiedbyfaceperceptionimpairments. Atreatmentforthesebiasesthathasgainedattentioninrecentyearsisattentionalbiasmodification(ABM).In ABM,peoplearetrainedthroughfeedbacktoallocatelessattentiontonegativeemotionalinformation(e.g., sadexpression)andmoreattentiontopositiveorneutralemotionalinformation(e.g.happyexpression).ABM canhelpreducethesymptomsofdepression,buttheeffectseemssmallandnon-robust,andthereisverylittle understandingofitsmechanismsofactionandhowtoincreasegeneralizationbeyondthetrainedtaskand biases.Designingbettertreatmentsforattentionalbiasesindepressionwillrequireabetterunderstandingof thebiasesthemselves.Thisprojectproposestousestate-of-the-artcomputationalandpsychophysical approachestomorepreciselycharacterizethreerelativelyunexploredaspectsofattentionalbiasesthatare likelytohaveanimpactontheoutcomeofABMandsimilartreatments.Morespecifically,wewilluserecent advancesingeneralrecognitiontheory(towhichwehavecontributed)andinclassificationimagestechniques, tostudywhetherpeoplewithdepressionshowanimpairmentinfilteringinformationaboutotheraspectsof faces(e.g.,identity)whentheyprocessfaceemotion,whetherthebiasesobservedindepressionaredueto perceptualversusdecisionalprocesses,andexactlywhatfaceinformationisprocesseddifferentlyduring emotionidentificationindepression. Finally,basicresearchsuggeststhatincreasingthediscriminability,independenceandattentiontorelevant featuresofemotionalexpressionshouldincreasegeneralizationofABM-inducedlearningtonewfacesoutside ofthetrainingenvironment.Anidealprotocolwouldalsotargetbothperceptualanddecisionalprocessing.Our previousresearchshowsthatcategorizationtrainingistheidealcandidateforsuchanintervention,asit producesallthedesiredeffects.Anexploratorygoalofthisprojectistotestwhetherwecanimprove discriminabilityandindependenceoffaceemotionprocessinginpeoplewithdepressionusingcategorization training.